[April, 1863.J 181 



BOTANICAL LETTERS FEOM AUGYLESHIRE. 

 A Run to the Top of Glenramskill. By James Lothian. 



" I stand upon my native hills again, 



Broad, round, and green, that in the summer's sky, 

 With garniture of waTing grass and grain, 



Orchards and birchen forests bi\sking lie ; 

 While deep the sunless glens, and scooped between. 

 Where brawl o'er shallow beds, are streams vmseen." 



W. C. Betant. 



Lovers of the country alone can sympathize ^^ith the botanist 

 who in the first fine week of March or April takes down and 

 dusts his vasculum^ looks at the suburban map of London, and 

 consults Bradshaw, or, what is better, the time-tables issued 

 by the respective railways which have their termini in or near 

 this great metropolis. liis prospective pleasures are to be felt, 

 not described. 



Our excellent and imaginative correspondent, the author of 

 the " Letters from Argyleshire," asks a question which we will 

 answer, without the formality of stating what it is. 



In the fine days of March, in our youth, — when in the famous 

 university, where Dugald Dalgetty studied the humanities, and 

 where he complained of short commons, but not of a want 

 of mental pabulum, — youths sometimes trowed the Greek class, 

 liking a game of golf on the broad links more than the wisdom 

 of Socrates, the descriptive simplicity of Xenophon, and the 

 spirit-stirring eloquence of Demosthenes and TEschines. Our 

 lively friend is hereby informed that if we could not leave home, 

 and our avocations also, with a good conscience, or without 

 leaving undone any service of obligation, or the relinquishing of 

 any work of mercy or charity which we could bestow on ignorant 

 or suffferiug humanity, our rural or botanical excursion would do 

 us no good, but we should be haunted with the harassing con- 

 viction that we were not in the right place, and we could neither 

 enjoy the finest scenery nor the richest flora in the wide world. 



Our readers, if they condescend to take our counsel, will do 

 well to consider, before going out to admire the beauties of Flora, 

 whether or not this is compatible with a due regard to the ful- 

 filment of their necessary social and domestic functions. 



When they are at liberty from these ties, they may go where 



N. S. VOL. VI. 3 Q 



